Laparoscopic gastrectomy versus open gastrectomy for elderly patients with gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

摘要

Background The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and potential benefits of laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) comparing with open gastrectomy (OG) in elderly population. Methods Studies comparing LG with OG for elderly population with gastric cancer, published between January 1994 and July 2015, were identified in the PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Science databases. Operative outcomes (intraoperative blood loss, operative time, and the number of lymph nodes harvested) and postoperative outcomes (time to first ambulation, time to first flatus, time to first oral intake, postoperative hospital stay, postoperative morbidity) were included and analyzed. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the quality of the pooled study. A funnel plot was used to evaluate the publication bias. Results Seven studies totaling 845 patients were included in the meta-analysis. LG in comparison to OG showed less intraoperative blood loss (weighted mean difference (WMD) ?127.47; 95?% confidence interval (CI) ?202.79 to ?52.16; P Conclusions LG is a feasible and safe approach for elderly patients with gastric cancer. Compared with OG, LG has less blood loss, faster postoperative recovery, and reduced postoperative morbidity.